When you search for award flights from Sydney to Los Angeles, for example, the Qantas website will probably only show availability in Economy class:

Screenshot from Qantas website

But flying Qantas is not your only option! You can also redeem Qantas points to fly with Fiji Airways. Flying daily from Sydney to Los Angeles via Nadi, Fiji Airways offers both Economy and Business class. And, unlike Qantas Business class awards to Los Angeles, Fiji Airways tends to release a decent amount of seats. You still need to be flexible with dates, but you’ll be more likely to find something. Below are the results of the same search on the Qantas website for award availability from Nadi to Los Angeles. Gold ribbons represent Business class award availability.

Screenshots from Qantas website

Once you’ve found a suitable flight from Nadi to the USA, use the multi-city search tool on the Qantas website to book this in conjunction with another Fiji Airways award flight from Australia to Nadi.

Fiji Airways also flies from Brisbane, Melbourne and Adelaide, although the flights from Melbourne and Adelaide don’t connect well to the Nadi-Los Angeles service.

If you’re flying from Sydney, you can fly on an Airbus A330 with flat-bed seats the whole way to the United States. Admittedly, these Business seats do have a slight incline but they are still a comfortable way to fly.

Fiji Airways Business Class

Fiji Airways also flies from Nadi to San Francisco a few times per week. If you can’t find any reward seats to Los Angeles, try searching for Fiji Airways seats to San Francisco instead.

Better award availability is just one benefit of flying with Fiji Airways. It will cost you 96,000 Qantas points to fly Business class from Sydney to Los Angeles with either Qantas or Fiji Airways. But when redeeming Qantas points on Fiji Airways, the co-payment is only $126.38 of taxes. By comparison, you’d need to pay an additional $471.54 if flying Qantas. (This includes a $335 Qantas “carrier charge”.)

You can also redeem American Airlines AAdvantage miles to fly with Fiji Airways. A Business class ticket from Sydney to Los Angeles costs 80,000 AAdvantage miles plus $126.38.

Frequent Flyer Solutions can help you to redeem your points

Would you like help to find reward flights? The Award Flight Assist service can find you the perfect flights using your points. Just let the team know how many points you have and where you would like to go, and they’ll prepare an itinerary for you.

Frequent Flyer Solutions also offers informative, educational webinars! The next webinar will take place next Wednesday, 11 April at 8pm and will teach you everything you need to know to effectively redeem your points to travel to destinations across North and South America.

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 50 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil, New Zealand & Kazakhstan. His interests include economics, aviation & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.